December, 23 2009
The Best Talent Isn't For Hire
Posted by Liz GreeneAlright folks, this one isn’t about risk, but I’m still going to put it on my blog, well, because it’s the space I’ve got. It’s still about independent contractors, though, so read on . . .
Most days I get bombarded with email invitations to various talent management webcasts, promising to teach the seminar attendees, presumably HR talent managers, recruiters, and workforce planners, how to source and hire the world’s top talent. I just got another one that actually reads, “. . . will be special guests in a rare joint session to discuss what it takes to find and hire the best talent on the planet.”
Ok, so we we’ll learn how to hire the best talent on the globe.
Really?
I’m something of a skeptic, and if you read my blog much you may have already picked up on that. Beyond the obvious issues of hyperbole (how many of these webinars really do deliver the kind of juice they promise? will attendees really be able to implement and actualize these ideas to get such dramatic results?) my big objection is this:
The best talent on the planet is not for hire.
Not really anyway. Not as your employee.
This is kind of a sweeping statement, and perhaps a little self deprecating, as I myself am a regular full-time employee. (A touch of self-deprecation this blog is probably overdue anyway.)
But I’ll stand by my assertion: the best talent on the planet is not for hire.
The most talented people on the planet are skilled above their pay-grade. The best talent is too valuable to sit there letting you profit on their skills and expertise while they take home a regular salary just cozy enough to pay their mortgage and buy soccer shoes for their kids, with little cushion left for investing in the future. They are smart enough to know better. The best talent has figured out what they are really worth on a strategic level, and they are going out in the marketplace looking to bring that home to the family.
They’re smart and sneaky, these mice who’ve jumped the maze. They found out what you’re billing the client for their hours, and they’ve wondered where the money goes between that rate and their hourly salary equivalent. They’ve crunched some numbers and have had a lightbulb moment. They understand their role in making your business profitable, and are now self-aware of the fact that it wouldn’t be so hard to make their own business profitable, by a fraction, and still be doing better. They have grokked that their contributions are more valuable than what they’ve been paid all this time.
And now, having seen the light, they’re also looking back over their resume, and thinking about risk. You know, the risk that comes from not having a supposedly guaranteed paycheck coming via direct deposit. The risk that all independent consultants and small businesses face in having to earn their living one assignment at a time. Only now, they’re thinking about how many times they’ve been laid off over the last ten years, realizing that there is no such thing as a permanent job anymore – everyone is now an entrepreneur managing their own career. They’re remembering how they had to leave their last company and go you, the competitor, to get more than a 3% raise. They’re thinking about what it means to have all of the risk, but none of the potential profit, of being in business for oneself. And they’ve noticed the independent consultants smugly roaming the halls with special colored security badges, and seen those populations grow in recent years.
If they haven’t already walked out of the halls of employment forever, they’re about to. And they’ll be starting up their own little micro-businesses, their companies-of-one. They will be knocking on your door with project bids and Statements of Work. Hanging out a shingle in the modern world has never been easier than it is today.
Don’t want to take my word for it? The Chicago Tribune reported just today that 50% of the workforce is actively planning to leave their job in 2010. "The best workers are mobile in any economy," a Right Management memo said. "Employee turnover is expected to rise next year," partly because research shows "many workers are unhappy with their present jobs."
They're making their exit plans now. The same article also reports that a Workforce Management magazine story recently concluded "layoffs, pay cuts and other fallout from the recession have devastated employee engagement."
Do you really want to talk about top-grading your workforce?
Do you have any idea how to engage with these people in their new incarnations as independent consultants? Or how many you already have working in your organization, the troublesome ones, statement of work consultants who don’t even go through your neatly developed HR and Talent Management processes?
Alright, now before I go curl up in the corner to cry and re-read, “Who Moved My Cheese,” let me at least put a positive spin on this.
Talent Managers and HR leaders can, and will, get a grip on this. You will be able to develop new processes, in collaboration with your procurement leadership, legal counsel, and line managers, to broaden your organization’s workforce planning and talent models to incorporate this shadowy workforce of independent consultants and contractors. I’ve been to several of this year’s best contingent workforce management conferences, and have met those who have joined in the quest. They are earnest and serious, they are reaching across the organizational silos, and they are focused on finding the right solutions.
If your organization hasn’t caught up yet, don’t despair. New models are emerging that will make attracting and engaging the best talent on the planet easier, safer, and more efficient – no matter whether those individuals need to be engaged as regular employees or as SOW consultants, independent contractors, or small vendors. Someday soon, if you aren’t already, you will be empowered to focus on getting the right talent, at the right time, for the right price . . . and for the right length of time.
We’re proud and excited to be among the innovators in this space, working hand-in-hand with companies like yours, and in collaboration with our industry partners in the staffing, MSP, and VMS worlds. In our role as a “universal adaptor” for independent consultants and small businesses to plug themselves into performing work for very large organizations, we truly have a front row seat for watching the sea change in the way work is performed in the world.
It’s my pleasure to not only blog about these changes, but to closely work with the world’s most talented individuals as we provide the legal and financial infrastructure for them to operate just like large corporations.
Thanks so much for subscribing to this blog, and I hope to see you at one of the industry conferences in 2010 where we’ll be participating in some of these discussions.
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Reba at 01/13/2010 10:18:14
Your article sheds a flattering light on the independendt contractor, yet I feel somewhat defensive at your remark" The best talent on the planet is not for hire." This seems to be entirely dependent on the type of position a person fills. I am incredibly talented and have a TS-SCI-FS clearance which I have been told over and over is worth it's weight in gold. HOWEVER, even as a diversely skilled professional who has done web design, systems administration, corporate photography, and graphic arts and illustration, I have suffered the pangs of unemployment for the bulk of the past 2.5 years after being laid off from the likes of big companies like Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Lockhhed Martin. I have repeatedly expanded my skill set, spent countless dollars on training and yet I cannot find a team to join as a regular employee. What I have found pays less than I can live in here in the Washington, D.C. area. I have managed to do work via an agency on a few independent consulting positions doing graphic support for proposals to make ends meet and keep my clearance active. If what you say is true, than no employer is ever going to hire me as a fulltime worker hence they will assume I am not "the best talent around" because I am unemployed. I understand the point of your article, but I think you are just a bit off base with your comment.